After the Battle...
by princesskatrina
Summary: Will struggles to save the world and live without Lyra.


Will was leaning against the flagpole in front of his school. His clear, yet troubled, blue   
eyes gazed at the scene in front of him. At the teenagers, huddled in separate cliques,   
discussing incredibly trivial and boring topics.   
  
He was not a member of one of those groups. Will was always alone, but only by his   
choice. Nearly all of the cliques would have been happy to accept him, to become friends   
with him, yet Will gracefully declined every time. It seemed strange that people who   
never even glanced at him before suddenly wanted to be like him. Although Will didn't   
realize it, his adventures had changed him. Before he had been merely distant and aloof.   
Now there was an element of mystery about him that made him almost irresistible. There   
were rumors that he had killed someone, and his absence was because of his trial. Of   
course, this was partly true, but Will said nothing to prove or disprove the rumors.   
  
His daemon appeared a few meters away. "Will," she called simply.   
  
At once, Will left his position at the flagpole, and started running towards Kirjava.   
  
"On the football pitch," she told him.   
  
"Thanks, Kirjava," he muttered as he sprinted past her.   
  
As Will left, people turned to watch. Many followed behind him. Since Will had come   
back, they had learned that exciting things were never far from him. It seemed like he had   
a sixth sense that told him where trouble was.   
  
Meanwhile, Will had reached the grassy field, where two boys were fighting, already   
surrounded by a few onlookers. Without hesitation, Will leapt into the midst of the   
quarrel, breaking between the combatants and trying to force the two apart.   
  
Eventually, having received a few hits, but having hit no one himself, Will succeeded in   
separating the fighters. Now there was a much larger crowd, standing in a circle around   
the three. Will could just make out Kirjava beyond the spectators, unseen by everyone but   
him.   
  
He turned to the two boys. "Don't fight."  
  
They both started speaking at once.   
  
"What the bloody hell?"  
  
"Who do you think you are, you goddamn son of a bitch?"  
  
Will only repeated, "Don't fight."  
  
Just then, a teacher broke her way through the crowd.   
  
"What is going on here?"  
  
While the opponents stammered, Will replied, "Nothing."  
  
"Nothing?" the teacher reiterated skeptically.   
  
"Yes," Will stated. "They were having a bit of a disagreement, but it's over now."  
  
The teacher didn't look convinced, and Will thought to Kirjava, find her daemon.   
  
Kirjava quickly made her way toward the teacher, taking care not to touch anyone on her   
way. Will, meanwhile, was using the special technique that Mary had been teaching him,   
and soon was able to see the professor's daemon, a large, brown mouse sitting on the   
grass a few feet from her.   
  
Unseen by all but Will, Kirjava pounced on the also unseen daemon. He let out a brief   
squeak. Taking care not to hurt him, Kirjava nonetheless held on to the other daemon.   
Although the teacher didn't see this happening, and didn't even know that she had a   
daemon, she felt that she had been overpowered by the young man in front of her. She   
thought it strange that the student was controlling the teacher, yet felt she had no choice   
but to accept what he told her.   
  
"All right, then," she said. "Don't let it happen again."  
  
And she turned and walked out of the ring. Kirjava released the unnamed daemon. As   
soon as the instructor was gone, the fighters turned to Will.   
  
"Man, how did you do that?"  
  
"I thought we were dead!"   
  
"It doesn't matter," Will stated simply. "Just don't fight again, because I won't save you   
a second time."   
  
With that said, Will turned and walked out of the circle of onlookers as the teacher had   
done moments before. Kirjava came to stroll beside him. They felt the eyes of all the   
students upon them, but ignored it. Will was getting pretty good at ignoring things. And   
accepting them.   
  
Ever since Will had come back into his world, he had been missing Lyra. He longed for   
her with such a passion that it sometimes frightened him. Amazing that something could   
scare him, Will, a murderer.   
  
Well, he wasn't exactly a murderer any more. He and Mary had turned themselves in to   
the police after finding Will's mother and taking her to stay with Mary's mother. After a   
brief trial, Will was acquitted on the grounds of self-defense, and Mary was allowed to go   
free if she paid for the equipment she had damaged. Since she had a safe-sized bank   
account, this was no problem. Will, his mother, and Mary all shared a house now, and   
Mary had gotten another job to support them, along with the monthly checks that   
continued to come from Will's deceased father.   
  
And he still missed Lyra. He was learning to live with it, though. He had thrown his   
entire being into doing what Xaphania had said. He did everything to make more Dust, so   
that the window for the dead could stay open. That, and his mother, and Mary, was all he   
had to live for anymore.   



End file.
